Red, Green, and Blue

Everyone is turning toward China and India as the next big countries involved in international climate change agreements. But this attention seems to undermine the fact that there are other developing countries that may be affected just as much by global warming.

Africa has so far gone relatively unnoticed in climate change debates, perhaps because it’s seen as a place involved in too many civil wars and too much poverty to be a player in international agreements. But the poor of Africa, even though they generate lower carbon footprints as a whole, still face the same global effects of climate change as the bigger, richer nations do…and that are generally caused by the bigger, richer nations.

Recently released UN reports say that climate change may hit Africa harder than was thought before: some areas in the land of rolling sand dunes and grassy Savannah may experience up to a 5.8 rise in temperature by 2010. And receding coastlines, droughts and unpredictable weather can be especially hard economically and socially for poor countries that rely mostly on farming for food and revenue.

African Climate Change Conference

But on Sept. 10 and 11, leaders of African nations and international climate figures met to discuss what to do about the fact that Africans are paying for global warming they shouldn’t necessarily be responsible for. The main message to get from the African Climate Change Conference: African countries must unite in both adaptation and prevention of global warming. Everyone seems to agree that the continent can no longer be ignored in the upcoming climate talks in Denmark.

Meeting in Rwanda, leaders discussed mitigation techniques, such as population control and water preservation. They also encouraged local industries to step up adaptation efforts, such as coffee farmers who need to take into account the higher frequency of droughts in the types of beans they choose to plant.

Carbon Credits

A few days earlier, business also considered Africa’s role in climate change issues. The African Carbon Forum in Dakar looked at ways the environment and economy can go hand-in-hand in the continent. The forum focused on carbon credits, or the idea of countries being able to pay off their carbon emissions rather than reducing them - which is something poorer countries like those in Africa can’t always afford to do. Maybe this signals a change in thinking about the solution to this whole global warming mess, and one that includes developing countries.

Richer countries are starting to look at Africa, seen not only by discussions such as these but also by development projects. In recent talks with Africa, Japan invested $10 billion USD toward a “Cool Earth Partnership” with Africa and other developing countries to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for one.

But a lot of the issue is up to African leaders getting together to make legislation against emissions and to improve African technology. It’s a moot point, though, unless the big lawmakers in the UN don’t do anything about it in post-Kyoto protocol talks. Africans may still end up paying the cost for global warming, and in the hardest way imaginable - with their lives.

Image Credit: Britt Larson, freelance photographer

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